GE worker Kei Sugaoka climbs out of a reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 1977...
Posted on 03/15/2011 8:13:35 AM PDT by SE Mom
Latest news from Japan:
From the BBC-
1456: Tepco says it may start pouring water from a helicopter over Fukushima Daiichi's reactor four in the next few days, to cool the spent-fuel pool.
1439: A 30km (18 mile) no-fly zone is in place around Fukushima, says the IAEA.
1436: The IAEA says Monday's blast at Fukushima may have affected the integrity of the containment vessel - there are fears of more serious radioactive leaks if happen.
1435: Following earlier reports, it appears there has been more than one strong aftershock in Japan - AP reports two tremors measuring over 6.0 within three minutes of each other.
Twitter-
-US Geological Survey counts 451 aftershocks since the initial earthquake struck Japan Friday. 238 of them registered magnitude 5.0 or more.
-Despite situations in Japan & Libya, spksmn Jay Carney says Pres Obama's 5-day trip to Brazil, Chile & El Salvador starting Fri night is on.
-FLASH: More U.S. military personnel in Japan testing positive for low-levels of radiation, relief missions to continue - Navy 18 minutes ago via web
Dumb question here, but why do they wear face masks? They’ve worn them long before the quake so why? I remember seeing them during the SARs scare but isn’t that long past?
Thanks.
GE worker Kei Sugaoka climbs out of a reactor at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in 1977...
By Courtesy photo
By Courtesy photo
Hon, we all would be better off without politicians, period.
The camera magnifies the slightest imperfection. They can't afford a radiation sunburn on their new face lifts or loss of their pampered hair.
http://www.baycitizen.org/disasters/story/inside-japans-failing-nuclear-reactors/
Inside Japan’s Failing Nuclear Reactors
Martinez man once repaired the mighty Fukushima power station; now he is observing its destruction
By John Upton on March 16, 2011 - 5:47 p.m. PDT
MARTINEZ — For five days, the world has watched as engineers struggle to contain a catastrophe building inside four Japanese nuclear reactors.
Martinez resident Kei Sugaoka knows those reactors well.
Sugaoka was a senior field engineer for General Electric Co., which designed and helped maintain the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station in northeastern Japan. Over a 21-year period, he descended “countless” times into the plant’s now-failing reactors, giving him a unique perspective on the unfolding drama.
After he was laid off from GE in 1998, Sugaoka gained notoriety as a whistleblower who reported significant safety violations at Fukushima, leading to sweeping reforms in Japan’s nuclear industry in the early 2000s.
However, as he watches the disaster from his two-story home in suburban Martinez, Sugaoka said he is stunned that a facility he regarded as safe and impregnable appears to be melting down.
“Never in my mind did I expect to see this,” he said in an interview. “This is unbelievable.”
[...]
If you are trying to ship something (as in emergency supplies overnight delivery type of thing) to Japan UPS is not taking rush packages. Not sure if that is only parts of Japan or what.
Locals say they suffer from hay fever - thus the masks,
One approximation for the solution to the Way-Wigner formula says that the radioactivity of a group of fission products will drop by a factor of two (half-life) at a rate about equal to their "age", the "age" being how long they have been decaying since they were last involved in a fission process in a reactor core. So, one day after the fission stops, the half-life is about a day. After a week, the half-life is about one week, etc. So as time passes, decay continues to occur, but the overall rate slows down, because you've decayed out the shorter-lived forms, leaving only longer half-lives as time passes. But, still, you do get reduced heat load as time passes. So every day we avoid any major problems is another day of reduction in fission product heat.
Probably small comfort at this point, but something.
That 12 mile thing has bugged me the last few days. Apparently, the talking heads can't do simple math and they can't be bothered to verify statements flung out by their competition.
Japan said days ago that the evacuation zone was 30 kilometers. That's 18.6 miles.
Masks seem a bit extreme for hay fever imo and I am allergic and sneeze at everything.
Actually- I believe it was evacuate within 12 miles and stay inside and use no a/c or open windows from 12 miles to 18.
Yes it does, but locals who have been questioned about it say hay fever, so I don’t know.
Maybe it’s another Japanese thing about not wanting to admit the obvious which seems to be a noticeable problem since this catastrophe began.
Plutonium, fuel rod reactions stoke nuclear tensions (Reactor #3 and why it is critical)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2690298/posts
Item on Drudge, no link yet:
REPORT: Radiation Found At O’Hare Airport... Developing...
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